The campaign for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has not backed off its criticism of the foreign policy approach President Obama’s administration has taken following the attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions.

One of Romney’s top foreign policy advisors, Richard Williamson, said the protests that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his fellow diplomats, would not have taken place if Romney were the president.

Williamson said the situation would have been much different if Romney was in office. Williamson served as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. under President George Bush. He said it is the first time since 1979, under President Jimmy Carter, that an ambassador from the U.S. had been assassinated.

Williamson said that respect in Yemen, Libya and Egypt, for America has dropped. He said that the U.S. is not even able to protect its sovereign property. The former Ambassador’s comments were much stronger than candidate Romney exhibited while campaigning on Thursday.

Romney criticized Obama indirectly by making the suggestion that the U.S. was not shaping events overseas, but was rather at the mercy of overseas’ events. If he is elected, Romney said he would renew American leadership in the Middle East.

Romney said that American leadership was needed in the world today and under the current administration that was not happening. He said the Middles East needed it and he intended to provide that leadership as the president when elected in November. Romney said he would provide leadership that all of America would respect and that would keep the U.S. admired around the world.